Astro reduces FY16 capex

KUALA LUMPUR: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd is planning to reduce its capital expenditure (capex) for financial year ending Jan 31, 2016 (FY2016) by 25% to RM300 million from RM400 million in the previous financial year, with the completion of the conversion of its customers' legacy set-top boxes to the B.yond high-definition (HD) platform.
"The bulk of our reinvestment was done in 2013 when we swapped out all the set-top boxes. Now the new B.yond boxes are at 91% of our total homes (households) already, so literally it was done from last year onwards," its CEO Datuk Rohana Rozhan told a press conference after the company's AGM yesterday.
She said the bulk of its capex this year would be used to add on its transponder infrastructure.
"We have taken delivery of seven new KU-band transponders recently and soon we are going to launch nine HD and two SD (standard-definition) channels. Bulk of our expenditure would be on that," Rohana said.
For the first quarter ended April 30, 2015, its net profit grew by 31% to RM168.3 million from RM128.3 million last year, due to the increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda), decrease in depreciation of set-top boxes, amortisation of software and net finance costs.
Revenue was up by 6.4% to RM1.33 billion, compared with RM1.25 billion previously, on the back of higher subscription and advertising revenue, as well as average revenue per user (Arpu).
Astro's Arpu increased to RM99, a 2% increase compared with RM97 in the same period last year, driven by higher take-up of its bundled packages and value added products and services.
Going forward, the company said its premium content on NJOI, a subscription-free satellite TV service, together with other enhancing products and services will continue to improve its revenue.
"We will continue to strengthen content on NJOI by launching two HD channels, Astro Xi Yue HD and Astro Maya HD, as well as providing a variety of prepaid options to purchase premium content," Rohana said.
Currently the company offers 184 TV channels, of which 73 are Astro-branded and 50 are in HD, for its 4.4 million customers, representing 65% of Malaysian TV households.
Of the 4.4 million customers, 50% are pay-TV subscribers, while 13% are NJOI customers.
"We intend to reach 85% household penetration in the next five years, from current 65%," she said.
NJOI is Malaysia's first subscription-free satellite TV service with up to 25 TV and 20 radio channels.